Pete Carroll: I’m no less optimistic Seahawks will get a deal done with AWOL DK Metcalf
Pete Carroll still thinks his Seahawks are going to get a deal done with DK Metcalf.
The Pro Bowl wide receiver skipping mandatory minicamp?
“A decision that he had to make,” Carroll said Thursday. “We missed him. We’d love to have him with us.”
Not exactly a blistering rebuke of his star player.
That was after Metcalf, entering the final year of his rookie contract and wanting a new one worth perhaps $25 million or more annually, skipped all three mandatory practices this week. They were the only mandatory workouts of the six-month offseason.
A league source told The News Tribune the Seahawks did not excuse him. That makes him subject to up to an approximately $90,000 fine per the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement — if the team decides to pursue that.
“There have been conversations, some,” Carroll said about a new Seahawks contract for Metcalf. “We’re in, pretty, kind of a standard (pause). Semi-quiet right now, knowing that camp’s coming up. These are crucial weeks to get something done.
“We’ll see what happens, and hope that we can work something out. We’ve really intended to get that done.”
Asked if the Seahawks will fine Metcalf for making his statement wanting a new contract by being the only one of 90 Seahawks unexcused and absent from minicamp this week, Carroll said: “We don’t talk about that.”
There is a precedent for this team and Carroll’s regime not fining players when it could for absences. Marshawn Lynch and Kam Chancellor come to immediate mind.
There is also a precedent for this team having players sit out training and camps while wanting new contracts, seeming to be at an impasse with the Seahawks — and then striking new deals with Seattle. Jamal Adams did that just during training camp last summer, before he reached an agreement with the Seahawks on a four-year, $70 million extension. It’s the richest deal for a safety in league history.
Lynch, Chancellor, Duane Brown, Qaundre Diggs, and others skipped practices and camps yet ultimately re-signed with the Seahawks for big bucks.
A five-figure fine for a man who will earn $3.99 million for the 2022 season isn’t an expensive way to leverage his team for a new deal.
The fines get much more expensive for skipping days of training camp: $50,000 per day in most cases for veterans, per the league’s CBA.
Both Metcalf and Carroll have said this offseason they expect the Seahawks to get a new deal with the 24-year-old who made the Pro Bowl in 2020 while setting a franchise record with 1,303 yards receiving that season. He had a career-best 12 touchdown receptions last season.
Metcalf said in January: “I’m not trying to leave.”
Does this week of Metcalf skipping minicamp change that?
“No, I’m not less optimistic. No,” Carroll said.
“We’ve been through this for years, you know. We know it’s a challenging time. We’ve had so many high-profile guys that have gone through this process, and how’s that worked out for us?”
Very well, in fact.
“We’ve figured it out, in time. Johnny (12th-year general manager John Schneider) is on it. He’s as experienced as you can get at handling this stuff. DK’s got great representation, and DK’s a heck of a kid.
“But there’s no way avoiding the first time of this, you know. The first time and what it feels like and all of that (negotiating a second NFL contract). There’s so many classic examples of how guys have dealt with it and handled it, and our guys have got to figure it out.
“It’s unfortunate that no one ever learns from the guy before, you know. It’s like the first time. It’s like a 51st-date kind of thing. You’ve got to go through it. That’s just what it is. ...
“He’s a remarkable person. He’s a wonderful player. He’s got so much to offer the world, and all. I just don’t want him to miss this opportunity where we can’t figure it out. So, we’ll do everything we can.”
Metcalf said last month on Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe’s podcast for Fox Sports: “I will say, we are going to get something done. I think I am going to be in Seattle for the next coming years, yes, sir.”
He showed up for the start of the team’s voluntary offseason workouts in April. He was pictured smiling at Seahawks headquarters.
But he was AWOL this week from the mandatory stuff.
He had surgery this winter to fix foot pain he played through last season. He has been away recently from voluntary workouts rehabilitating from the surgery in southern California. But the team expected him here this week.
Metcalf became a 2020 Pro Bowl selection when he set that Seahawks record with 1,303 yards receiving. That was in the second season of the rookie contract he signed after Seattle traded up into the bottom of the second round to get him in the 2019 NFL draft.
Metcalf’s draft classmate and former University of Mississippi teammate A.J. Brown just got a $100 million, four-year deal from Philadelphia in a trade from Tennessee to the Eagles last month.
It was the latest example of how the market for wide receivers has skyrocketed this offseason. That has Metcalf in line for at least $25 million per year for 2023 and beyond.
That might sound prohibitively expensive for the Seahawks — today. But their buying power is about to soar.
The league’s salary cap is going from $182 million last year to $208 million per team this year to perhaps $225 million or more in 2023. The NFL’s new media-rights revenues split evenly among its 32 teams kicks in next year when Metcalf’s new contract will begin.
Plus, the Seahawks no longer have to pay Russell Wilson. They traded their franchise quarterback to Denver in March.
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 2:02 PM.
